Transitioning into a new life can be tough for many students. Every
experience and interaction you have during your first year of college
will be a new one, which means you’ll have to find new ways for
dealing with stress and feeling down. Fortunately, your school’s
mental health center can help you get through this tough time by
offering counseling. Don’t hesitate to use this service if you’re
feeling stressed, depressed, or confused: ignoring your mental health
is just as bad as ignoring your physical health.

Counseling

Going to therapy or counseling to talk about your feelings doesn’t
make you crazy or unstable. In fact, it means just the opposite.
Students who talk about their feelings feel balanced and are more
likely to succeed in college than those who white-knuckle it.

The counselors who work at the mental health center are trained
professionals who specialize in the mental health issues that frequently
come up for college students. If your school offers graduate studies
in psychology, the counselor may be a PhD student doing his or her
internship. Don’t worry, they’re not just practicing on you: these
people are already thoroughly trained to counsel people and are
just logging hours toward their graduation or accreditation.

Group Therapy

Along with individual counseling, you can also join a
group focused on a particular topic, such as grief, trauma, self-esteem,
and eating disorders. People often hesitate to join a group therapy
session, because it can be difficult sharing your emotions with
a room full of strangers. But the members of the group are all there
to work through their feelings, not to judge you, and it helps to
see that other people are dealing with the same problems you’re
experiencing.

Depression

Depression is like a bad or sad mood that you can’t snap
out of. If it lasts for an extended period of time, depression becomes
a serious medical condition and should be treated by a mental health
professional. Everyone gets depressed at some time or another, but
clinical depression is the type that doesn’t lift. About 10 percent
of all college students are diagnosed with clinical depression.

Here are some signs of depression to watch out for:

Waking feeling unrested and unable to get
out of bed in the morning

Waking frequently during the night after nightmares/disturbing
dreams

Ceasing to do things you once enjoyed

Difficulty concentrating

Drastic weight gain or loss

Frequent upsetting thoughts/worrying too much

Becoming emotional or upset for no obvious reason

Irritability/short temper

Feeling “slowed down”

Losing interest in life/suicidal thoughts and feelings

A lot of factors can trigger depression, including stress,
new responsibilities, changes in your social life, and substance abuse.
If you think you’re depressed, contact your school’s mental health
center right away. Clinical depression does not go away on its own.

Suicide

Each year, 10,000 university students attempt suicide,
and 10 percent succeed. These are frightening statistics.

Suicide happens when pain (emotional or physical) outweighs
the resources a person has to deal with it. Suicidal feelings tend
to dissipate when the person takes some action to relieve the pain,
such as counseling. No one is going to think you’re crazy for having
suicidal thoughts, and there are people who can help you overcome
these feelings. Most people who attempt suicide don’t want to die,
but rather just want to be rid of the pain they’re feeling.

If you’re thinking of suicide, immediately stop whatever you’re
doing and tell someone. Call a suicide hotline or go to your school’s
mental health center, where you can talk to trained people who will
help you deal with your thoughts and feelings. You’re not alone.

Addiction

Substance abuse is pretty widespread among college kids, many
of whom are either experimenting for the first time or continuing
their drug and alcohol abuse but now with the added freedom of being
away from home. Fifty-five percent of college students admit to
using drugs, and even greater numbers admit to drinking alcohol
regularly.

Alcohol is everywhere in college: at parties, sporting
events, and even your dorm. Fifty percent of college males and nearly 40
percent of college females say that they binge drink. Thirty-one
percent become alcohol abusers, but of those only 6 percent seek
treatment while in college.

Alcohol can be deadly in large doses or when it’s combined with
other drugs. It’s very likely that someone on your campus will die
this year as a result of a drug overdose or alcohol poisoning. Don’t
let yourself become a statistic. If you or someone you know has
an alcohol or drug problem, contact the mental wellness center at
your college. They have resources to deal with addiction.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders can appear in the first year of college.
Stress, school pressure, and homesickness can trigger eating too much—called
bingeing—to comfort sad and lonely feelings. Eating too little,
which is a symptom of anorexia, can bring a feeling of control to
a stressed-out student, as can purging, which is a symptom of bulimia.
But these disorders cause more harm than they do comfort. In the
long run, eating disorders create serious health problems and lead
to thousands of deaths each year.

Don’t get caught in the dangerous cycle of eating disorders.
If you think you have a problem, contact your health center right
away. Because eating disorders are so common on college campuses,
schools have professionals who know exactly how to deal with them.
No one is going to judge you.

Homesickness

Homesickness afflicts most first-year college students
and is especially common in the first few weeks of school. You’ve moved
away from home for the first time and have left everything familiar
and comforting behind. You’ll miss your friends, your pets, your
room—you’ll even miss your little brother’s whining and your parents’
nagging.

You can’t avoid homesickness, but you can keep it from
crippling you in college. Here are some great ways to curb your longing
for home:

Put up some favorite photos of your family
and friends.

Make friends in your dorm. You can commiserate about your
homesickness, and you’ll be less lonely.

E-mail some friends back home. Don’t make lengthy phone
calls—it’ll make you feel even more homesick and it will cost a
fortune.

Write down a few things you miss about home and a few things
you love about your new life in college.

Don’t mope. Get out and do something fun.

Do something nice for yourself, like getting a massage,
and don’t feel guilty about it.

Call your family just to say hello. Don’t throw a one-person
pity-party on the phone. You’ll feel better when you hang up if
you didn’t spend the time whining about how much you miss your cat.

If your homesickness gets really bad, call your school’s mental
health center and make an appointment. Your feelings are valid and
are worth talking out with a professional.

Don’t rush home until vacation time (unless you live reasonably
close to campus and can make a day trip). While you’re home, the
other people in your dorm will be getting to know one another well,
and you’ll miss out on all of that bonding.

Stress

Moving is one of the most stressful times in a person’s
life. When you move to college, you have the added burden of being
on your own for the first time, making new friends, taking care
of yourself, and starting a rigorous class schedule. All these factors
make your first few months of college pretty stressful.

Stress affects both your mind and your body. It is a reaction to
events happening in your environment, and can also be a reaction
to something happening in your body (such as illness or hormonal
changes). Most people can handle a certain amount of stress and
can even use it to motivate themselves, for example, using the deadline
for turning in a term paper as a stimulus for getting it done. But
at some point the stress can become too much, and you may become overwhelmed
and unable to handle everything that’s going on.

If your world feels like it’s falling apart, call the
mental health center right away. Chances are nothing’s really falling apart,
and if something is, there is a resource at school to help you put
it back together.

Stress Management

You won’t be able to get rid of most of the stressors
that come with college life, but you can choose to deal with them
differently, which will reduce your stress level. Try these techniques:

Relax. Take thirty minutes for yourself
each day to do something that requires as little effort as possible
and doesn’t use any brain power. Watch TV, read a trashy novel, people-watch—do
whatever it takes, just as long as what you’re doing is relaxing.
Don’t play video games, answer e-mails, or do anything else that
raises your heart rate and requires a lot of concentration. The
idea is to become a cauliflower for the moment.

Balance your workload. Perhaps you’ve taken on too much. Write
down all of your weekly obligations. Where is there time for you?
Try to carve a couple of hours out of your day for “me time.” You
may have to give up an activity or obligation to do that.

Get a massage. Some universities offer massage at their health
center. Call to find out. If not, perhaps you and a friend can swap
massages.

Meditate. When you’re going a hundred miles a minute, meditation
is an opportunity to slow down for a while and reconnect with yourself.
Meditation classes are often offered on campus.

Sleep. If you’re tense, you may not be getting enough
sleep. Aim for as close to eight hours a night as possible. If you lose
too much sleep you can become ill and confused, and you won’t perform
well in school.

Nap. Can’t get eight hours of sleep? Taking a fifteen-
to twenty-minute nap during the day is refreshing. But don’t nap
for longer, because you’ll wake up groggy and won’t be able to sleep
at night.

Find your purpose. We admit that this is a tough one.
But wandering aimlessly, not knowing what you’re doing on earth,
is even more difficult. Of course, finding your purpose is a lifelong
journey, and nobody expects you to figure it out over the course
of a few hours. So try to figure out what your purpose is for today.

Stop procrastinating. Putting things off for later can
cause extreme stress, especially as deadlines approach.

Take a day trip. Taking a day to get off campus to go
hiking or camping can put you in a totally different frame of mind by
the time you get back.

Work out. Yes, you’re busy with all of the pressures of
your new life, but you’ve got to make some time for regular exercise.
Ideally, you’ll get some exercise every day, but you don’t have
to work out hard every day. See if you can fit a yoga class into
your schedule. If you can’t make it to the gym regularly, try walking
the long route to your classes and doing some abdominal crunches
when you wake up and before you go to bed. Regular exercise helps
the body to release the tension built up from too much stress and
will help to regulate your sleep patterns and your appetite.

Sleep

Stress and depression can lead to sleep disturbances. Either
people can’t fall asleep at all, or they’ll hunker down under the
covers all day, avoiding the world around them. Getting some balance
in your life should help you find a normal sleep pattern. Eat right,
exercise, deal with your feelings, and try not to procrastinate.
Get to bed at a reasonable hour and get up about eight hours later.

If you have difficulty sleeping, make your bed as comfortable as
possible with soft sheets and a cushy mattress topper. Use a small
white-noise machine if background noises bother you. Ask your roommate
to respect your sleeping schedule. If insomnia persists, make an
appointment at the health center. Don’t read in bed to fall asleep:
you’ll only train your brain to become sleepy when you read, which
is not a good plan for a college student.

Your First Year
Believe it or not, your academic success at college will greatly enhance your social life.